The first temptation to which Christ was subjected is interpreted by the Inquisitor as follows:

And do you see the stones in this parched and barren desert? Turn them into loaves, and mankind will run after you like a flock of sheep, grateful and obedient, though forever trembling with fear that you might withdraw your hand and they would no longer have your loaves. But you did not want to deprive man of freedom and rejected to offer, for, you thought, what sort of freedom is it if obedience is bought with loaves of bread?

The rejection of the loaves constitutes a rejection of the first, and most self-evident, of the three principal means whereby individuals can be re lieved of their burdensome freedom—for in this first temptation is revealed the truth that the weak will give up the prerogative of individual freedom to those who...